Students fight to save their high school amid budget showdown

Rhea Bassan (left) and Haidee Pangilinan (right) in front of Gladstone Secondary in Vancouver The high school of more than 1,000 kids is targeted for possible closure and these two students are leading a fight to save the school.Arlen Redekop / PNG

But now another battle is joined: the bid to save those 12 schools targeted for possible closure as cash-strapped administrators look to save money and consolidate classrooms.

A fierce fight looms at Gladstone Secondary, a 66-year-old high school with more than 1,000 students that forms the heartbeat of an East Van community.

“It hurts a lot,” said 18-year-old Haidee Pangilinan, co-president of the student council. “This school is like my second home. To hear it could be shut down, it’s very painful.”

But it won’t be shut without a fight, students and parents vow. An online petition is gathering steam and a #saveGSS hashtag has been launched on social media.

“Gladstone is a huge part of this community and it would be terrible to lose it,” Pangilinan said. “We need to save it.”

Rhea Passan, the other co-president of the student council, said the community connections include more than 70 student volunteers at nearby Trout Lake Community Centre and Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House.

Both provide vital services to an ethnically diverse neighbourhood and Passan fears student volunteerism will reduce if kids are forced to bus to more distant schools.

“There’s so much that could be lost,” Passan, 17, said. “This will hurt the whole neighbourhood, not just the students who go to school here.”

But the school board — under pressure from the B.C. government to balance its budget and close under-utilized schools hit by falling enrolment — has targeted Gladstone because it is only 66-per-cent occupied.

School enrolment in the city has been falling since 1997 but the board has shut down few schools, while other boards have closed 300 under-utilized schools across the province.

“The board has chosen to invest in empty classrooms rather than students,” said Education Minister Mike Bernier, who says unused classrooms cost the school district $37 million a year.

“Other districts have moved forward and gotten rid of empty seats. Vancouver refuses to do this.”

The school board is required by law to balance its budget, and the government wants the board to strive for an average 95-per-cent school-occupancy rate across the district.

The 95-per-cent rate is part of a seismic-safety agreement between the board and government, though the government says the figure is a “target” that does not have to be met in an individual school before the government agrees to pay for expensive building upgrades to keep kids safe in earthquakes.

But NDP MLA Adrian Dix, who represents the riding containing Gladstone and two other marked-for-closure schools, says Bernier is out of line.

“He’s basically trash-talking the school board and threatening to shut down a remarkable high school because he’s chasing arbitrary numbers,” Dix said. “And those numbers are misleading.”

Gladstone currently has six surplus classrooms devoted to continuing-education classes for adult students. Because they’re not occupied by kids, the ministry counts them as empty.

“It’s not fair,” Dix said. “There are schools throughout the city that have converted surplus classrooms into art rooms and music rooms and the government says they’re ’empty’ when they’re being used by kids every day.”

You can throw in classrooms converted into daycares, office space and libraries, too. Any classrooms converted without ministry approval get marked down as “empty” by government bean-counters.

“We estimate we could easily add 15 percentage points to Gladstone’s use-of-space statistic if all utilized spaces were counted fairly,” said Anthony Wong, chair of the school’s Parent Advisory Council.

While the grownups play their number games, Wong said the Gladstone kids continue to amaze with their achievements. They include a groundbreaking robotics program that consistently places near the top in international competitions, including winning the world robotics championship in 2012.

“Right now, this school is a dynamic neighbourhood hub,” Wong said. “Once you close it, you change the neighbourhood. Then it just becomes an empty building in the middle of a residential area.”

Wong brought his own kids to Gladstone because of the arts programs on offer, which include music and drama classes and a dance studio.

School-board trustee Christopher Richardson said if the high school is shut down — a final decision won’t be made until the fall — the school’s award-winning programs would be moved to other schools.

Richardson, who represents the right-leaning Non-Partisan Association on the school board, says the district must make difficult decisions on school closures and redirect saving to students.

But Patti Bacchus, from the rival Vision Vancouver party, sees a pattern of disappearing programs as the government demands savings.

“It’s extremely sad,” said Bacchus, who voted against a balanced budget because it would eliminate an elementary-school music program that teaches string instruments to kids.

Four Vision trustees teamed up with a Green Party trustee to vote down the balanced budget. Now the entire board risks being fired by Bernier, the education minister, as a result.

“The government is asking us to dismantle important programs and I won’t be part of it,” Bacchus said. “If that means me losing my job as a school trustee, then so be it.”

Her NPA rivals say she’s being irresponsible.

“We now have 10 schools with less than 100 students and a principal making $100,000-plus supervising two to three teachers,” said NPA trustee Fraser Ballantyne. “We were voted in to solve problems.”

But a school with 100 kids is one thing. A high school with more than 1,000 is another. If Gladstone Secondary is closed, it would be the largest school ever shut down in B.C. due to falling enrolment.

The official motto at Gladstone is “Fide Et Virtute” — faith and courage. Both will be put to the test as students and parents battle to save their school.

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